The Utmost Corroboration That I Can Find
Lies In The Following Facts Stated By Makrizi:
-
On the 13th Safar, A.H. 670 (20th September 1271), Bundukdar arrived
unexpectedly at Damascus, and after a brief raid against the Ismaelians he
returned to that city. In the middle of Rabi I. (about 20-25 October) the
Tartars made an incursion in northern Syria, and the troops of Aleppo
retired towards Hamah. There was great alarm at Damascus; the Sultan sent
orders to Cairo for reinforcements, and these arrived at Damascus on the
9th November. The Sultan then advanced on Aleppo, sending corps likewise
towards Marash (which was within the Armenian frontier) and Harran. At the
latter place the Tartars were attacked and those in the town slaughtered;
the rest retreated. The Sultan was back at Damascus, and off on a
different expedition, by 7th December. Hence, if the travellers arrived at
Ayas towards the latter part of November they would probably find alarm
existing at the advance of Bundukdar, though matters did not turn out so
serious as they imply.
"Babylon," of which Bundukdar is here styled Sultan, means Cairo, commonly
so styled (Bambellonia d'Egitto) in that age. Babylon of Egypt is
mentioned by Diodorus quoting Ctesias, by Strabo, and by Ptolemy; it was
the station of a Roman Legion in the days of Augustus, and still survives
in the name of Babul, close to old Cairo.
Malik Dahir Ruknuddin Bibars Bundukdari, a native of Kipchak, was
originally sold at Damascus for 800 dirhems (about 18l.), and returned
by his purchaser because of a blemish. He was then bought by the Amir
Alauddin Aidekin Bundukdar ("The Arblasteer") whose surname he
afterwards adopted. He became the fourth of the Mameluke Sultans, and
reigned from 1259 to 1276. The two great objects of his life were the
repression of the Tartars and the expulsion of the Christians from Syria,
so that his reign was one of constant war and enormous activity. William
of Tripoli, in the work above mentioned, says: "Bondogar, as a soldier,
was not inferior to Julius Caesar, nor in malignity to Nero." He admits,
however, that the Sultan was sober, chaste, just to his own people, and
even kind to his Christian subjects; whilst Makrizi calls him one of the
best princes that ever reigned over Musulmans. Yet if we take Bibars as
painted by this admiring historian and by other Arabic documents, the
second of Friar William's comparisons is justified, for he seems almost a
devil in malignity as well as in activity. More than once he played tennis
at Damascus and Cairo within the same week. A strange sample of the man is
the letter which he wrote to Boemond, Prince of Antioch and Tripoli, to
announce to him the capture of the former city. After an ironically polite
address to Boemond as having by the loss of his great city had his title
changed from Princeship (Al-Brensiyah) to Countship (Al-Komasiyah),
and describing his own devastations round Tripoli, he comes to the attack
of Antioch:
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